Gratitude

There is not a more pleasing exercise of the mind than gratitude. It is accompanied with such an inward satisfaction that the duty is sufficiently rewarded by the performance. —Joseph Addison

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.—Melody Beattie

The unthankful heart . . . discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweeps through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings! —Henry Ward Beecher

Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul. —Henry Ward Beecher

Whatever we are waiting for . . . peace of mind, contentment, grace, the inner awareness of simple abundance . . . it will surely come to us; but only when we are ready to receive it with an open and grateful heart. —Sarah Van Breathnach

When our perils are past, shall our gratitude sleep? —George Canning

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. —G. K. Chesterton

If a fellow isn’t thankful for what he’s got, he isn’t likely to be thankful for what he’s going to get. —Frank A. Clark

Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart. —Henry Clay

Praise the bridge that carried you over. —George Colman

If you have lived, think thankfully the past. —John Dryden

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you,” that would suffice. —Meister Eckhart

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.—Ralph Waldo Emerson

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has. —Epictetus

Who does not thank for little will not thank for much. —Estonian proverb

Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: It must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all. —William Faulkner

Gratitude is the least of the virtues, but ingratitude is the worst of vices. —Thomas Fuller

If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily. —Gerald Good

For what has been—thanks! For what shall be—yes! —Dag Hammarskjold

The hard part is not getting what you want, but wanting what you get. —Katherine Hepburn

Thou hast given so much to me, Give one thing more . . . a grateful heart; Not thankful when it pleaseth me, as if Thy blessings had spare days, but such a heart whose pulse may be Thy praise. —George Herbert

The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings. —Eric Hoffer

Only a stomach that rarely feels hungry scorns common things. —Horace

Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted. —Aldous Huxley

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. —John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Gratitude, not understanding, is the secret to joy and equanimity. —Anne Lamott

We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude. —Cynthia Ozick

Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving. —W. T. Purkiser

As each day comes to us refreshed and anew, so does my gratitude renew itself daily. The breaking of the sun over the horizon is my grateful heart dawning upon a blessed world. —Adabella Radici

We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. —Albert Schweitzer

The only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped you. —John E. Southard

Silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone. —G. B. Stern

We think we have to do something to be grateful for or something has to be done in order for us to be grateful, when gratitude is a state of being. —Iyania Vanzant

God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say “thank you?” —William Arthur Ward

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. —William Arthur Ward

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. —Thornton Wilder

Grace isn’t a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal. It’s a way to live. —Jackie Windspear